07-18-2020, 08:52 PM
I may be straying into Terry rule territory here, by linking this article on newspaper objectivity:
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts...of-opinion
Two things I learned from it:
The Associated Press became a big driver of objectivity: "Some of this was provided by the Associated Press (ap), founded in 1846, which supplied stories to papers of diverse political leanings and so stuck to the facts. As the news pages became more even-handed, publishers established editorial pages, on which they could continue to back their favoured politicians."
Secondly, advertisers were a big driver of objectivity: "Advertisers wanted less partisan coverage to sit alongside their messages."
So, now we have a situation where, "The shift away from partisanship a century ago was driven partly by advertisers. Today, as ad revenues leak away to search engines and social networks, newspapers have come to rely more on paying readers. Unlike advertisers, readers love opinion."
As with other things, we get the press we deserve.
BC
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts...of-opinion
Two things I learned from it:
The Associated Press became a big driver of objectivity: "Some of this was provided by the Associated Press (ap), founded in 1846, which supplied stories to papers of diverse political leanings and so stuck to the facts. As the news pages became more even-handed, publishers established editorial pages, on which they could continue to back their favoured politicians."
Secondly, advertisers were a big driver of objectivity: "Advertisers wanted less partisan coverage to sit alongside their messages."
So, now we have a situation where, "The shift away from partisanship a century ago was driven partly by advertisers. Today, as ad revenues leak away to search engines and social networks, newspapers have come to rely more on paying readers. Unlike advertisers, readers love opinion."
As with other things, we get the press we deserve.
BC